Today we're looking at the HIS R9 380 IceQ X2, a card that boasts a custom heatsink and a factory overclock, offering strong gaming values for consumers on a modest budget. With a reasonable price tag of $225, it sounds pretty good so far. Let's get this card on the bench and take a closer look.

Introduction We are starting to see more and more Intel X99 series motherboards hit the market. The X99 series wasn’t designed to be a budget series platform, but that doesn’t mean it can’t fit into other marketing segments as well. There are many users who don’t feel right spending $500+ on a motherboard, but are okay with something in between this price and the low-end/budget models. Now that this platform has had its time to mature, manufacturers are releasing a range of X99 motherboards to meet the demands of all types of consumers. We have a wide variety, from high end enthusiast boards to the more basic motherboards. Today, we have a chance to take a look at a Gigabyte X99 motherboard that meets “mid range” description perfectly: the Gigabyte X99-SLI. This motherboard is designed with quite a few bells and whistles, but with a more moderate price. Let’s dive in and take a closer look… About Gigabyte: GIGABYTE was founded in 1986, establishing our uncontested position in continuous technological innovation. By focusing on key technologies and achieving strict quality standards, GIGABYTE has been regarded as an innovative and trusted motherboard leader in the globe. To keep pace in a rapidly changing world, we have offered a comprehensive product line covering Motherboards, Graphics Cards, PC Components, PC Peripherals, Laptops, Slate Devices, Desktop PCs, Network Communications, Servers and Mobile Phones. W...

Introduction When it comes to the CPU Cooling market, we know that there are lots of choices out there. But with so many options, how do we know which one is the right one? There are many aspects to choosing the right cooler for you. First, you need to look at what’s important… Here are a few questions you should ask yourself: 1. What kind of processor or platform will I be installing? 2. Will I need something that can handle overclocking? 3. What size of cooler do I need for my mainboard and case? We all know that picking the right cooler is also pretty subjective, as there are a wide variety of styles to choose from. If you have landed on this page, then you are heading in the right direction. Looking at reviews and comparing test results is the first step to researching the right CPU Cooler for your setup. Today, we have the pleasure to introduce to you the Deepcool Assassin II CPU Cooler. The Deepcool name has not been around for a long time. Unlike Cooler Master, Noctua, Thermaltake, Phanteks and other major mainstream brands, Deepcool is fairly new in this arena. We have only started to see them gain popularity in the last few years and we have to say that in this short time, they have grown quite a bit. The products we have seen from Deepcool are not only unique, but frequently offer outstanding performance. Will the Deepcool Assassin II CPU Cooler meet your needs? Today we are going to help you answer some of those questions. Let’s take a loo...

Today we're looking at the Samsung Micro SD PRO+ 64GB and EVO+ 32GB cards. They promise very different speeds for consumers and professionals alike, and we'll discuss those differences as we take a closer look at what Samsung has to offer with their latest splash into the retail market.

Introduction Pure Overclock just recently had the pleasure of reviewing Cougar’s flagship 700K Mechanical gaming keyboard. This keyboard received many accolades along with some of the highest awards from the industry for its beautiful aluminum construction and customized software. While the price tag is on the high side for the 700K model, some can justify spending that kind of money. We all know the term, “you get what you pay for,” but some of us are simply looking for the best bang for your buck. Plus, with the abundance of today’s gamers making comments like, “we don’t always use all the features” that are available on those more expensive keyboards, folks are looking for alternatives. All is not lost. With Cougar’s well received launch of its first mechanical gaming keyboards, they have set out to really expand in this arena. They came up with a wide range of options from the very affordable to the very expensive. Cougar likely aiming to reach a wider audience and we don’t blame them for doing so. In our hands today, we have their newly developed 500K and 600K gaming keyboards, both of which have been designed for gamers, typists and priced for your average joe who can’t quite justify the 700K’s price tag. So today, we get to put both these very affordable keyboards to the test to see how they match up with today’s competition and Cougar’s own 700K model.

We're looking at the MSI R9 380 Gaming 4G, a card that boasts a custom heatsink, improved power design, and a factory overclock, all for a modest premium of only an extra $25. Sounds pretty good so far. Factor in that AMD is bringing a few new features to the market with the R9 300 series launch, and we're cautiously optimistic for strong gaming value.

Introduction We love speed as much as the next performance seeker, and many of us spend great sums of money and loads of time trying to optimize our systems, find the best parts for a new build, and squeezing every bit out of components. Admittedly, some components are easier to overclock or extract maximum performance, some are more difficult, and some are, well, just plain misunderstood. It’s probably a fair and reasonable statement to say that memory performance is one component typically found in the last category. The crux of the issue often comes down to how we perceive and “rate” memory performance, and the two most critical factors which influence that performance: speed and latency. There seems to be some significant misinformation and misunderstanding, and we see it often in the forums, in review comments, and elsewhere. So we decided to go straight to the experts to find out how these two factors influence memory performance: we talked with Crucial. Crucial is a global brand of Micron Technology, one of the world’s foremost leaders in memory design and manufacturing. They not only produce their own performance products and memory lineups (as well as SSDs, flash drives, and all other things related to memory), but they are also OEM suppliers to some of the biggest names in the industry. Needless to say, Crucial knows memory. We briefly spoke with Jeremy Mortenson, who is the Worldwide Memory Product Marketing Manager at Crucial, and asked ...

Introduction Earlier this year we took a look at one of Phanteks Evolv mATX Chassis called the Enthoo Evolv. The Enthoo Evolv Chassis took home our Editors Choice award for its outstanding features and solid construction. Since that time, Phanteks has been hard at work developing new products and growing its already outstanding product line. Today we have a chance to take a look at a new addition to the line up. We have the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX Chassis. At first glance, the Phanteks Evolv ITX Chassis mimics its bigger brother with the obvious changes in size. But with the popularity of small form factor builds, miniITX cases have become a hot commodity, so its no surprise to us that Phanteks would want to move into this arena. Will the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ITX meet the expectation of builders and live up the reputation of its larger sibling? Today we are going to take a closer look at the chassis and find out. But before we do that, let’s talk about who Phanteks is: About Phanteks “Phanteks was founded from a group of engineers with a total of 20 years of international experience in thermal solutions. They paired up with a Dutch design team and established Phanteks in 2007. Phanteks venture into the CPU cooling industry with two goals in mind, high-end quality and innovative products in thermal solutions. As a relatively young company, we strive to develop top quality and superior products. Our Phanteks Design Team is situated in the Netherlands and...

Introduction With DDR4 Memory now starting to mature since its release with the X99 chipset, we are starting to see the market get flooded with more options and variety, many of which now providing great performance with high frequencies and lower cost. With more and more kits becoming available, the competition is getting more fierce everyday. Today we have the chance to take a look at the HyperX’s new budget friendly line up the Fury series DDR4 memory. At the launch of DDR4 memory, it primary features were offering lower voltage and higher native frequencies. DDR4 features a native speed of 2133MHz, which is really nothing to WOW over or about since we have seen these speeds with DDR3. However, the main updates are its newer JEDEC Culmination and Density, DDR4 memory components now provide better speeds and faster response while being more power efficient at the same time. The HyperX Fury memory we are going to be looking at today not only offers fast speeds of 2666MHz out of the box, but also offers the efficiency of lower voltage; with that in mind… we can see some great potential with additional performance once overclocked. We will be comparing results from Kingston’s (HyperX) previous line up from its DDR3 series all the way up to HyperX Predator DDR4 series we previous tested. But before we do that, let’s learn about who HyperX is. Who HyperX is: “HyperX is the high-performance product division of Kingston Technology, the world’s la...

Introduction The X99 chipset has now had a little bit of time to mature. During its initial launch Gigabyte sent us the X99-UD4 motherboard for review. The X99-UD4 took home our Great Hardware Award for its simple aesthetics along with a solid performance to value. Now that we are six months into the release of the X99 chipset, we are seeing more motherboards become available at a much more affordable price. Today, we are going to be looking at one of these motherboards that offer a similar performance to the X99-UD4 in a more simplified package and price. We introduce to you the Gigabyte X99-UD3P. Aesthetically, the Gigabyte X99-UD3P is very similar to the UD4 motherboard with some obvious changes. As we continue here, we are going to take a closer look at the Giagbyte X99-UD3P to see exactly what those differences are. Before we do that, let’s move forward and talk about Gigabyte. About Gigabyte: GIGABYTE was founded in 1986, establishing our uncontested position in continuous technological innovation. By focusing on key technologies and achieving strict quality standards, GIGABYTE has been regarded as an innovative and trusted motherboard leader in the globe. To keep pace in a rapidly changing world, we have offered a comprehensive product line covering Motherboards, Graphics Cards, PC Components, PC Peripherals, Laptops, Slate Devices, Desktop PCs, Network Communications, Servers and Mobile Phones. We are dedicated to building up a full-range digital life,...

Introduction Solid-State Drives are starting to become the norm when shopping for storage. With drive prices on a decline and capacities getting larger, many are starting to consider SSD’s as there primary source for storage. While prices for the large capacities SSDs are no where near standard mechanical drives, they are become more affordable in recent years. For those that are looking for SSD Drives, most are typically using them as a primary system drive, or as we call it, the “OS” or “boot” drive. So capacities of 120GB all way to 500GB are not uncommon and seem to be the popular sizes. So with so many SSD Drives in today’s market, often times we tend to turn to the names or companies we are familiar with. Kingston Technology, one of the leaders in the industry has been rather well known for its previous HyperX 3K Series Drives. But as most already know, Kingston started to branch out its HyperX line up to its own brand as of the recent years and the HyperX brand has grown substantially. With this in mind, we are going to be looking at one of these new SSD Drives part of the Savage Series from HyperX. We bring you the HyperX Savage 240GB Solid-State Drive. HyperX’s Savage SSD will be replacing the aging HyperX 3K drives which was previously released by Kingston. The Savage series is considered to be the mid range line up from HyperX while Fury remains to be the entry level and Predator Series are the flagship model. Before we...

Introduction The AMD FX Series processors are a few years old now and we haven’t seen any really big changes with AMD’s road map for these aging chips. Going back down memory lane a bit, during AMD’s original launch of the Bulldozer FX 8150, many of us had high expectations for AMD’s Piledriver architecture. Unfortunately, the 8 core 32nm processor didn’t match up to the marketing hype, and many folks saw it as a huge failure. Despite that, the engineering behind the architecture was actually a good idea, but the “ecosystem,” as some have put it, just wasn’t ready for AMD’s leap into this territory. Many of today’s applications and software just weren’t designed to adapt to the architecture’s full potential. AMD quickly re-positioned themselves and focused on competing with Intel’s mid-range line up based on price to performance. Shortly after the FX 8150, AMD pushed out their “slightly” revised processor, the FX 8320/8350, which was intended for its flagship AMD line up based on the Vishera platform. The FX 8350 was a little better received and took a strong market hold with solid price to performance, and held its ground for some time. Unfortunately, the platform was not what we would call “new,” and with Intel’s Tick Tock pushing ever forward, AMD again was left behind again. In reality, AMD hasn’t really released a new processor in a little over 2 years...

Introduction Phanteks has recently started to branch out with more products to add to their already popular name; they have set a standard in the cooling market with some of today’s top performing air coolers. The quality and superb performance reputation they have built, helps keep the air cooling market competitive and creates a leveled playing field with other top contenders like Noctua, be quiet!, NZXT and Cooler Master. In the past, we have seen some pretty unique air coolers from Phanteks. With features from beefy tower style coolers to color matching heatsinks, Phanteks has a style that fits everyone’s needs. Today…we are going to be looking at 2 new coolers that not only looks aesthetically pleasing, but have a price point that can fit anyone’s budget. We have for you today the Phanteks PH-TC12LS and Phanteks PH-TC14S. About Phanteks “Phanteks was founded from a group of engineers with a total of 20 years of international experience in thermal solutions. They paired up with a Dutch design team and established Phanteks in 2007. Phanteks venture into the CPU cooling industry with two goals in mind, high-end quality and innovative products in thermal solutions. As a relatively young company, we strive to develop top quality and superior products. Our Phanteks Design Team is situated in the Netherlands and consists of creative researchers, designers and developers whose only desires are to bring the latest cutting edge technology to yo...

The Ballistix performance series memory has proven popular for their stock performance, overclock-ability, quality and the ever changing style employed by Crucial. Recently we had the pleasure of reviewing the DDR4 Ballistix Elite 2666MHz kit, these featured beautifully crafted all black industrial heat spreaders with lines so rigid they invoked the presence of the Military Elite. This time around we will be looking at the latest addition to the Ballistix family, the Ballistix Sport LT. These should land right between the Sport model and the higher end Elite kits, hopefully netting us the best of both worlds, tighter timings and high clocks

iostar has released multiple "Hi-Fi" models over the last few years that were designed to fill the mainstream and multimedia space. With a heavy focus on audio reproduction and connectivity these board have done well in this arena. However none have taken on an appearance that speaks to being a higher end product like the Hi-Fi Z97Z7 has. This new look has genuinely piqued my interest. I do however remain optimistically cautious for fear it may turn out to be a budget board in mid-range product's clothing.